Liberation Day tariff refunds delayed as US customs stall on processing them
Jason Wellden, customs director at RSM UK, said: “US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are now more than halfway there, in terms of reversing the IEEPA tariffs and recalculating the duty owed, and are continuing to test the mechanism designed to achieve this.
“In the CBP Second Declaration report submitted yesterday (19 March), the US CBP confirmed it has conducted testing the refund consolidation functionality, which will continue into next week.
Jason Wellden continued: “Following the US Supreme Court’s decision that sweeping import tariffs were unlawful, the US Customs and Border Protection has been struggling to implement a mechanism to refund the emergency tariffs that were brought in on 2 April 2025.
“The Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, or CAPE system, is not ready for use as yet, so the CBP can’t stop processing import duties at the IEEPA tariff rates. This delay continues to hit businesses and is stalling the $130bn in potential refunds.
“Supply chain volatility is a huge headwind, particularly for businesses managing long, complex supply chains; and with new temporary tariffs in place under the Section 122 measures and no clarity of IEEPA refunds, businesses still face prolonged uncertainty, extra costs and greater complexity when they need stability to plan for the future.
“Interestingly, the CBP report references ‘review’ suggesting these refunds will not be straightforward to collect. CBP will want to audit affected entries with some rigour, so claimants will need to make absolutely sure that they have all the correct paperwork, otherwise their claims may be refused.”